Experimental app 'Plays the Road'

A new smartphone app which picks a playlist depending on your driving style has been created by Volkswagen and electronic musicians Underworld.

The Play the Road app analyses driving style to find suitable songs to reflect the mood.

The app was, however, always intended to be just an experiment and will never be released due to health and safety considerations.

Working together, VW and Underworld produced the app to help celebrate the launch of the seventh generation Golf GTI.

It connects to the car and uses a built in accelerometer to analyse speed, engine revs, steering, throttle and braking inputs. The urgency of each factor dictates the music choice, which ranges from 'beaty electronica to more chilled out tracks'.

Tom Wharfe, Communications Manager at Volkswagen UK, said: "Music and driving have always been synonymous since the invention of the in-car stereo.

"We wanted to explore how we could build on the driving experience and make music feel like an integral part of driving. For safety reasons, we can't release Play the Road to the public, but it's important for us to continue to innovate, learn from this and find applications for our future cars."

Rick Smith, from Underworld, said: "I think we all felt from the beginning that if it was just an experiment that produced an experimental result, and that was it, then it was going to be a failure.

"It needed to arouse emotions, as music does. What was really fascinating, was our precision driver, a self-proclaimed non-musician, doing the most beautiful things - performances."